The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-07-21
Landslips.

Speringer, the London Standard says:
Many of the Swiss villages exist almost on
sufferance. The avalanche of snow or
the avalanche of earth may at any mo-
ment sweep them away, or, what is
equally ruinous, overwhelm them
with the debris of the mountain
at the foot of which they arc
built In not a few instances the land
slip is so slow in its progress that it is
only question of time when tho final
catastrophe will be precipitated. AT Bee
Rouge in the Tarentaise, for example,
the side of the mountain is gradually
overwhelming the village of Miroir, In
most cases, however, the calamity is
sudden and unexpected. Such an in
stance is supplied by the fall of the Ross
berg, well-known mountain 5000 feet
high, situated just behind the better
known and loftier Rigl. In 1906, after
very rainy season, large portion of
the mountain, consisting of beds of hard
sandstone and pudding stone, resting on
soft sandy LAYERS, suddenly swept across
the valley of Goldau, burying four vii
lagos, comprising over 300 houses, nearly
500 inhabitants and more than S5 square
miles of fertile land. In 1855 mass of
debris slid into the valley of the Tibcr,
which, damned back by the obstruc-
ton, over6owed the village of San
Stefano to the depth of so feet, until
the drowned village was relieved by
means of a hastily constructed canal.
Another example of disastrous landslip
is that in which, by the adding of por
ton of Monte Como, the entire village
Of Plurs, with 2, ,430 inhabitants, was in
1918 overwhelmed. For several days be-
fore the catastrophe masses of rock had
become detached from the mountain,
and numerous assures were observed to
| form or widen on its sides. But the vii
layers disregarded the warnings, and
were in few minutes buried, with all
their possessions, beneath sixty feet of
rock and earth All attempts to pene-
trate the mass proved fruitless, and no
trace of the town has since been seen.
The earth which entombcd it is now
clothed with luxuriant forest of chest
nuts, but the original name stih survives
the little village of Plurs, or Pluro
1t may almost be said that these catas-
trophies are SO frequent that history pre-
serves the memory of only the most dis
astrous. Such one was that by which
| tha village of Elm was f.rwheimcd oniy
few years ago. At that time the place
contained fifty houses and nearly $50 in
habitants, most of them children and old
people. Nearly half of them were killed,
while most of the dwelling houses were
altogether crushed or buried heneath the
debris from that portion of the Tschin-
gel Alp, which broke away from its par
ent mountain Altogether, though the
Elm catastrophe was, in the loss of life
md property, of less magnitude than
those which overlook Plurs and Goldau,
it is doubtful whether it did not in
the amount of rubbish shot from
the mountain side, surpass both of these
gigantic landslides The Swiss geolo-
gists who visited the spot Immediately
after the disaster calculated that, at the
lowest estimate, the contents of the slip
measures 10000, 600 cubic metres. What
4 vast amount of material this pile con-
tains may be grasped by simple illus
ration. Zurich is city of 10000 in
habitants, yet in the debris shot from
the side of the Tschingel Alp there was
stope enough to build two Zurichs.
Some of the blocks are heaped 300 or
400 feet higher than the village of Elm.
One Is estimated to weigh 5000 tons,
and as these gigantic missiles were pre-
cipitated from height of 1000 feet the
irresistible force with which they fell
on the doomed villages can easily be
imagined.